India, Feb. 4 -- A Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) functionary on Wednesday released an audio recording of what he said was the last phone call made by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar minutes before the fateful plane crash that killed him and four others in Baramati on January 28.

The audio clip was released by party functionary Shrijeet Pawar, a distant nephew of Ajit Pawar, in Baramati, where Shrijeet said he received a call from his uncle shortly before the crash and shared a screenshot of his phone showing that the call was received at 8.37am. The aircraft crashed around 8.45am.

According to Shrijeet, the call was made in response to a message he had sent to the NCP leader suggesting that the Mali community be given representation...